


Curiosity

by pricklyteeth



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Android & Human interactions, Android Jongin, Fluff, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Other, Puppy Love, Science Fiction, Space Stations, abandoned moon colony, curious joni is curious about kyungsoo's human customs on his home colony, except droid so. droidpup love?, jongin is just . hearteyes emoji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 04:16:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12762963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pricklyteeth/pseuds/pricklyteeth
Summary: J0N-91N is an android left behind on an abandoned colony. Droid continues doing the daily duties of cleaning and making sure everything is in tip top condition, but droid is very lonely (and blames droidself for the creators and engineers and scientists leaving the colony behind). J0N-91N spends every night wishing on what seems like every star droid can see that someone will come back for droid, until eventually droid's wish is granted when a human named Do Kyungsoo crashlands his ship nearby.





	Curiosity

J0N-91N is holding a ceremony for another dead computer, setting a small wreath of tin and scrap wire on top of the monitor when it happens.

The droid catches sight of something shiny on the screen of the monitor, (droid’d polished it) thinking somehow the multicolored streaks reflecting on the screen were an indication that the computer hadn’t actually run completely out, when there’s a visceral crash, the Lysithean atmosphere lighting a fearsome red at the impact of whatever it was that had landed on the moon.  
  
Strange, J0N-91N blips to droidself. The Lysithean moon doesn’t usually have enough of its own gravity to attract comets or asteroids. Droid looks out, optical sensors scanning the horizon. The resulting dust cloud from the impact seems to happen just outside colony walls, and therefore would not qualify as one of droid’s duties. The monitor on J0N-91N’s stomach finishes playing the holo J0N-91N plays for all the dead systems droid finds, (it’s a clip from an Old Earth animation, and droid thinks it’s very soothing) before droid looks back towards the dust cloud.  
  
Not being able to stay on task was probably why droid’s creators had left droid behind after the big colony collapse. J0N-91N was a bad droid. Droid shouldn’t.  
  
Torn, J0N-91N turns on droid’s pedjets, propelling droidself up so droid can peek over the Curiosity’s border; the colony is not very large, just a foundation capped by a glass dome, a small research colony meant for creators, engineers and scientists to conduct collaborative experiments. Its small size means that J0N-91N can pick up what’s outside the colony walls for miles, if droid gives droidself a boost.  
  
J0N-91N nearly short circuits when droid realizes that it wasn’t a comet or an asteroid that just crashed into Lysithea, but a ship. A ship! Maybe J0N-91N’s wishes have come true! Maybe droid’s creators have come back!  
  
The droid nearly crashes into a glass barrier on his way out of part storage, one of the many designated areas around the colony that J0N-91N has organized alphabetically and numerically as well as by form and function. Droid’s creators used to call it the Junk Pile, but it is nothing like a pile, everything neat and tidy for future use, and it always made droid uncomfortable to think of anymake’s parts being called junk.  
  
After all, if they completely took J0N-91N apart, droid would be made of loose parts, all the same.  
  
J0N-91N’s gears whirl and spin anxiously as the droid speeds toward the entrance of the colony. Perhaps droid’s creators have come back, perhaps they’ve remembered they forgot J0N-91N!  
  
J0N-91N slows as droid nears the entrance, pausing as droid fits a pressure suit on. Droid likely just witnessed a crash landing. That wasn’t a neat docking into the colony’s hub. J0N-91N might have to perform more funeral ceremonies today.  
  
But, these are droid’s duties. J0N-91N brings extra collapsible pressure suits, dropping them into droid’s chest compartment before heading out, turning the latch for the anti-gravity chamber leading to the outside.  
  
If J0N-91N has to collect bodies, so be it. A droid’s gotta do what a droid’s gotta do.

 

  
The crash site isn’t far off, the odometer reading at the edge of J0N-91N’s vision informing droid that it’s less than a nautical mile out. J0N-91N had to switch to thermal vision as droid left the colony because the particles from the crash are far from having settled, and it wasn’t possible to see where droid was going if droid hadn’t done so.  
  
The ship doesn’t seem very large from his reading, looking to be a personal cruiser or solo research pod more than anything. Droid’s vision locks onto the engine, which is alarmingly red in his vision, the front of the ship escalating upwards of 6,000 degrees kelvin according to his censor.  
  
There’s a human inside, from what J0N-91N can tell, and droid’s finger digits clamp to the side to strip a wall panel out, frantically scanning for vital signs before pulling the human out of the burning ship.  
  
The scan doesn’t reveal anything particularly fatal; only superficial injuries, although the human seems to be lapsing into a concussion. J0N-91N strips the tattered pressure suit the human is wearing as best as droid can, replacing it with one of the suits droid was carrying. Quickly, droid moves to bang on the oxygen pack so it releases into the human’s mask.  
  
J0N-91N gingerly drapes the human over droid’s back, surprised when the human curls their arms around droid tightly, murmuring unintelligibly. J0N-91N worries about jostling the human in this state, but the ship’s thermal reading is unstable and escalating, and J0N-91N can’t safely address the human’s health needs here.  
  
Reaching droid’s arms around behind the human to steady them, J0N-91N turns on droid's pedjets, propelling them back towards the colony. 

- 

  
Kyungsoo wakes up, eyes bleary, the remnants of a splitting headache echoing around the inside of his skull. Where was he?

It smells like a med bay, and if the curious face poking into his vision is any indication, he was probably out, and this is a med bay.

He moves to get up but a hand comes up to block his chest. Opening his mouth is an uncomfortable experience, his lips sealed near shut from the dehydration, and the fact that he has probably been out for some time. Where was he?

"Wh-" he tries to get out.

"One moment please, droid is doing a health scan."

Ah, so it's a droid. Kyungsoo guesses it would be more obvious from the way the droid moves and talks, since it's not a particularly new model, or rather, isn't one meant to perfectly emulate humanness. It's a helper droid.

Kyungsoo lays back, letting the droid do the scan, gratefully accepting the pod of water when it's handed to him, sitting up to drink it. The droid keeps peering at him curiously, almost like he expects him to disappear. Kyungsoo has no idea where he is, let alone where he’d _go._

"Why am I here?" Kyungsoo asks, although he has some sneaking suspicions, and they are not particularly optimistic ones.

The droid looks around before answering. It's kind of endearing. "Droid saw your ship crash. You were in need of some medical assistance, as you had a concussion—likely from the impact of collision."

The droid nods to itself, holding its hands together in an almost nervous gesture. Kyungsoo would think it was cute if he wasn't thinking about his ship.

"Is it repairable?" Kyungsoo chews his lip. Well. If this colony has working med bays, they probably have the means to fix his ship so he can get out of here.  
  
He was on his way home after a short stint in the field for some research. It’s about to be omglot season, and Kyungsoo never misses holidays with his family.

The droid tugs on its finger, still looking nervous. That's probably a bad sign.

"Well, J0N-91N is not sure, but on last scan, it was over 6,000 degrees kelvin and rising. It may have undergone combustion."

"You're saying it exploded?"

The droid looks down and away, as if it’s personally ashamed for what happened. It makes Kyungsoo a little upset. How did its creators treat it so it was this scared of interacting—immediately taking blame for things that it has nothing to do with?

"That's likely," the droid responds, wringing its wrists together. "J0N-91N can go see if you would like."

"Is it close by?"

The droid—J0N-91N—nods. "Just outside the colony walls."

 

  
"Holy gork, it's fraking fried!" Kyungsoo exclaims, once J0N-91N has escorted him to the crashsite. "How long was I out? It looks like it burnt for days!"

J0N-91N buzzes through the telecommunication server connecting their pressure suits.

"Actually it's only been a couple Lysithean hours. Our time is a little slow, but it didn't carry out for days. Our atmosphere is particularly good at speeding up the combustion process, and can make engineering a little difficult outside of the colony, as it is atmosphere regulated inside."

Kyungsoo stares.

"So, in order to fix my ship, we're going to have to haul it inside the colony?"

J0N-91N stares back.

"Um. Affirmative."

Kyungsoo lifts gloved hands to tap at the pressurized glass of his helmet. "That shouldn't be too bad, I mean, I'm sure your colony has moving equipment suitable for carting large objects back and forth. Your repairmen must have some kind of opening loading dock for ships as well, we'll just have to alert them to my situation, otherwise if there's an old ship I could purchase?"

Kyungsoo is prone to anxiety, but he knows it's usually pretty irrational. He landed right next to a colony. Of course there will be people that can help him.

The silence from the droid though, is a little disconcerting. "Right?" he asks again.

"Um, human," the droid begins.

"Kyungsoo," Kyungsoo offers.

"Kyungsoo," the droid corrects itself. "When we were walking out of the med bay to get here, did you notice any other beings?"

Kyungso blinks. "I was a little preoccupied with the state my ship would be in when we arrived here, why?"

Even through the helmet, the droid looks supremely guilty. "Well, that's because this colony... Well, it's abandoned, Kyungsoo."

"You've got to be fraking kidding me."

 

-

 

They're back at the medbay now, and Kyungsoo has his head cradled in his hands, looking at the floor. "So you're telling me that there's literally no one else on this entire moon, besides you and me."

J0N-91N nods droid's head. "And some computers."

Kyungsoo is still staring at the floor. Droid feels like it's all droid's fault. "So no humans."

"Other than you, no, no humans."

Kyungsoo yells out of frustration, and it startles J0N-91N so much droid nearly falls over. Kyungsoo barely looks over, he is so distraught. J0N-91N rights droidself, moving to sit back on the bed opposite Kyungsoo.

"So I'm just going to rot here, on this moon, during omglot. Wonderful. Best feast season ever."

Kyungsoo is mostly talking to himself, J0N-91N can tell, but droid is curious. "What is omglot, Kyungsoo?"

He looks up then, scooting back to lean against the curved wall of the med bay, looking resigned. He lets out a sigh and it makes J0N-91N a little nervous. It was never a good sign when humans sighed around droids. Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to be sighing _at_   J0N-91N though.  
  
"It's—Well. It’s a harvest season for the people on my part of the planet I come from. I think it has historic ties to a harvest festival we used to partake in when our people were on Earth, but the language got lost a little in the diaspora."

J0N-91N blinks, frowning a little, remembering the holos droid’s watched from Old Earth, how humans used to celebrate their different cultures. "That _is_ sad. At least your people still celebrate it."

Kyungsoo nods. "I should be celebrating too, but I'm stuck here, unless you know some way to get me home."  
  
J0N-91N feels bad for wanting to keep Kyungsoo from his planet, simply because droid is lonely, but maybe droid can just keep Kyungsoo for a couple more days before he tells him he might know a way.

J0N-91N shakes droid's head.

"No repair bots, no programming code we can input to get you to engineer, no spare ships?"

J0N-91N chews droid's lip, shaking droid's head.

Kyungsoo flops onto his back. "Well I guess that's it then, it'll just be you and me in an abandoned colony, on this floating space rock in the middle of fraking nowhere."

J0N-91N feels bad for feeling droid's gears thrill at the sound of that. You and me. J0N-91N is so inconsiderate. Kyungsoo is clearly very upset.

Kyungsoo looks over at J0N-91N then. "Wait, if this colony is abandoned, why did they leave you here?"

J0N-91N looks down at droid's pedjets. "J0N-91N always thought it was because J0N-91N wasn't a good droid, and they didn't need J0N-91N anymore. There are mostly just parts and different powered-down makes left here."

Kyungsoo is silent for a moment, frowning as if something had just occurred to him. "While...it may not feel.. Class 9 to be left on an abandoned colony, but you know, if you weren't here, I really wouldn't be alive talking right now."

J0N-91N smiles, a little spark of hope whirring in droid's gears. "J0N-91N is glad then, to have helped."

And droid really is. Kyungsoo is droid's first human friend in a long time.

 

Later, J0N-91N leads Kyungsoo over to the mess hall, since he is no longer in need of rest (so he says) and his stomach is growling. The only nutrition in the medbay comes in the form of liquid nutritional supplements, and Kyungsoo does not seem too keen about being hooked up to tubes or bedridden for any longer than he already has been.  
  
Kyungsoo is swallowing down a bite of rehydrated ‘wich, looking around the hall before his eyes settle back on J0N-91N. “I’m an organics researcher, so I don’t know these things, but J0N-91N—is that an acronym for something?”  
  
“J-0-N dash ninety one-N. It stands for Juvenile operant, batch zero, new colony: Curiosity, 91st make, model N. J0N-91N,” J0N-91N chirps. It’s one of the first things droid knew about droidself, something droid still carries with pride.  
  
Kyungsoo nods, looking around again. “Ah, so that’s what the name of this colony is. Curiosity. Interesting. There isn’t a lot of branding around here, I don’t think you’d be able to tell if you were just dropped off here.”  
  
“J0N-91N would, because J0N-91N was created here. Curiosity is part of droid’s name,” J0N-91N responds.  
  
“I know that,” Kyungsoo replies, brows furrowed, waving around his ‘wich. “I just meant, you know, grot, like if someone like me were to just happen upon this colony on my own. General ‘you’ not droid ‘you’.”  
  
The human seems slightly frustrated. J0N-91N retrieves a pod of water from the food module built into the nourishment surface they’re sat at, dropping a calming tablet into it before setting it before the human.  
  
“Calming tablet,” droid supplies, when Kyungsoo frowns at the pod, perplexed.  
  
“I’m calm, why do you think I am uncalm?” Kyungsoo snaps, shoving the rest of the ‘wich in his mouth defensively.  
  
J0N-91N refreshes his health sensor, orbitals shuttering momentarily. “My health monitor indicates that you are agitated, Kyungsoo.”  
  
“Just give it here, droid.”

So J0N-91N does.

  
-

  
  
It’s during the impromptu tour around the colony the droid takes him on that Kyungsoo realizes J0N-91N likes to ask questions. About Kyungsoo’s customs at home, his work, even vaguely bizarre topics like human grooming conventions. The droid just seems to be very easily fascinated.  
  
Right now, the droid has Kyungsoo talking ab omglot traditions again, which doesn’t make it feel any better that he’s going to be missing them, but it’s nice just to be able to share and reminisce. It helps that J0N-91N seems to be very taken with the idea of tradition and practicing for the sake of heritage as well.  
  
“What happens during omglot? There are so many different festivities and rituals droid has seen from Old Earth. Gallery walks, since their culture used to participate in creating ‘artwork’. Droid remembers there was a holo about this ancient economic ceremony called Chrixtmax? Where humans used to exchange ‘gifts’ to one another underneath this large...green...fibrous organic ornament. Is there anything like that?”  
  
Kyungsoo hums. He’s never heard of ‘Chrixtmax’ before, but there was a lot about Old Earth that he didn’t know about, despite the fact that that was his species’ actual home planet. For better or for worse, it’s largely been abandoned. Onward and forward, wasn’t it? As for J0N-91N’s question though. “There is some exchanging, I guess. At the beginning of omglot, everyone exchanges cubits, as a kind of old idea about sharing wealth, I think. But mostly it’s about coming together with your related units and spending time together to prepare food and eat.”  
  
“Droid’s related units are all powered down or missing from the colony, it seems,” J0N-91N ponders aloud. “Is there a lot of nutrition prepared? What is it like?”  
  
Kyungsoo’s frown at J0N-91N’s previous statement lifts a bit at that. “There is so much prepared. I think because it’s supposed to be a kind of harvest season, feasting and eating in excess is a celebration of the food surplus? There are all sorts of skumptilious dishes. Everything has a particular place on the xable. Sweetlings on one side, Savorites on another. There’s a lot of grain dishes involved.”  
  
J0N-91N blinks, trying to picture it droidself. “J0N-91N wishes droid could see too. How do Nereidians know when to celebrate omglot? Are there seasons on your moon?”  
  
Kyungsoo’s face scrunches up a little at that. “Mm, well, we do have shifting seasons, but they’re pretty irregular. Harvest season can actually start earlier or later, but the celebration period stays the same. Omglot lasts from the ninety-third rising to the one-hundred and twelfth. It’s difficult because our seasons are not as stable as Old Earth’s probably were, so we just have demarcated risings.”  
  
J0N-91N blinks, as if something had just occurred to the droid, turning a corner. “Do you happen to know what rising it is there? On Nereid?—Those are the habitation barracks there, and that’s the mess hall, for reference.”  
  
Kyungsoo nods in acknowledgment of the buildings the droid points out as they make their way around the colony before tapping at his wrist, his omni lighting up under his skin. He has it programmed so that he has Nereidian time displayed adjacent to whatever the current time it is. “It’s the ninety-second. Omglot starts next rising.”  
  
Kyungsoo sighs. Even if he’d somehow managed to leave now, it’d take a minimum of five risings just to get back home to Nereid from here. Seven was more realistic. And that was if he had an operating ship, which he does not.  
  
  
  
  
Kyungsoo wakes up that very next rising with J0N-91N buzzing and blipping to wake him up, nearly lighting up his pedjets in his haste to get Kyungsoo out of the habitation barracks, which would at the very least cause a fissure in Kyungsoo’s arm segments since the gravity in the colony is regulated at a pretty high standard degree. There are a couple things droids have on humans there. Kyungsoo can’t say he has jet propulsion engines in his soles of his feet.  
  
J0N-91N steers him into a recreation lounge room, a module in a series of recreation spaces. This one seemed to be for targeted lazer gaming, with the screen displays all around, only it’s been fitted with a nourishment surface that looks suspiciously like it’s been lifted from the mess hall and it’s covered with a variety of rehydrated foods. J0N-91N looks especially proud of droidself.  
  
“Felicitous omglot, Kyungsoo! Just as you said, Sweetlings on one side and Savorites on the other,” the droid chitters, turning to Kyungsoo as if to gauge his reaction.  
  
Something in the human melts then. What a thoughtful gesture. “This is so loverly, J0N-91N, thank you so much.”  
  
The droid seems to turn inward then, as if suddenly feeling bashful. “J0N-91N just figured, since Kyungsoo won’t be able to make it to the first day of omglot, at least droid could try to have omglot here.”  
  
Kyungsoo’s lips twitch into a smile. “Well, you better be joining me then. It’s not really omglot if you’re not eating with others. Besides, did you really think I’d be able to finish all of this on my own?”  
  
J0N-91N’s orbitals shutter once, twice. “Of course J0N-91N didn’t!”  
  


J0N-91N has taken to showing Kyungsoo around the colony as the droid performs the sort of daily duties droid deems perfunctory. There’s a lot of cleaning and reorganizing that the droid seems to take responsibility over.  
  
Right now, the droid is showing him around various shelves of random parts he’s collected from around the colony, meticulously organized by size, shape and name, entire sections organized by function.  
  
“The creators used to call this place the ‘Junk Pile’,” the droid almost mutters, finger digit opening to blow pressurized air through a tiny piece of electromagnetic equipment that Kyungsoo is unfamiliar with.  
  
“That’s zodd,” Kyungsoo remarks. “This place seems to be remarkably organized.”     
  
“Precisely!” the droid exclaims, “J0N-91N always thought it was kind of cruel. Imagine if droids’ and humans’ positions were switched; if your parts were called junk.”  
  
Kyungsoo blinks at that. He hadn’t even considered that. “That’s pretty skrogged up, if you think about it that way.”  
  
Despite the pervasive evidence of sentience in droids, there was still this understanding of droids and anything running programming as disposable. The fact that pretty universally, humans and hybrids were also by definition cyborgs, fitted with programming and tech mods themselves was a little more than hypocritical.  
  
“Where are all these parts even coming from anyway,” Kyungsoo asks, following as J0N-91N flits from aisle to aisle, cleaning various parts and pieces before placing them into the zero-gravity holding space of the shelves to be suspended in partially sublimed electronically charged preservation fluid.  
  
J0N-91N sticks a finger into the semi-permeable shelf, cataloguing the details of the piece, its location, its function, its description, before retracting droid's finger and settling back down onto ground-level, where Kyungsoo is.  
  
“Well,” the droid starts, “there’s a lot of powered down droids around the colony. As well, with every passing rising, computers die as the powergrid slowly shuts off. Since there aren’t any humans left on this colony, whatever system is controlling the grid has stopped it from collecting any more power. Droid has to conduct the funerals and put the parts in the right places.”  
  
J0N-91N’s gaze is on the floor. The topic seems to be upsetting for the droid, but Kyungsoo can’t help but get concerned for another reason. He has to ask. “If—if the powergrid is shutting down, won’t you not have any power to charge from at some point?”  
  
“J0N-91N will be okay for a long while because droid charges as droid works, and can still charge from Lysithea’s neighboring moon Io’s volcanic flareups, as well as from the radiation energy every rising,” the droid responds, reassuring. “J0N-91N just wishes that the computers and sleeping droids could wake up, but many of them are unresponsive. Droid thinks they were put on perma-stasis. Sometimes droid wonders why droid wasn’t put on perma-stasis too.”  
  
Kyungsoo nudges J0N-91N then. “Hey, don’t forget, if you were in perma-stasis too, there wouldn’t be anyone to drag me out of my exploding ship, and I would have been cratergrit with the rest of it.”  
  
In his concern, Kyungsoo forgets to think about how the powergrid shutting down would also implicate him as well. To his defense, though, the droid’s answering smile could make anyone forget about just about anything.  
  
  
  
  
Despite the fact that it is often J0N-91N asking the questions, Kyungsoo finds himself learning little things about the droid in turn. How J0N-91N manages to be shy and skittish, but also bold and earnest. Charming even.  
  
Kyungsoo doesn’t understand how J0N-91N’s makers could have just taken off without the droid. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have anyone else to really compare with, but Kyungsoo thinks J0N-91N makes good company.  
  
Every night J0N-91N takes Kyungsoo to look at the stars, where ‘droid goes to sit and think’. There’s a vestibule that takes a long circuitous route all along the round dome of the colony, spiraling up into a clear observatory, at the very top of the dome surrounding Curiosity, as if a calming tablet had been pushed into the top of a jelly pudding.  
  
The observatory is rather small, but the skylight doesn’t block your vision in the slightest, and despite Kyungsoo’s familiarity with navigating through the stars, there’s just something about sitting back and just looking at them, admiring them, that has anymake opening up.  
  
J0N-91N reveals to him, as a shooting star goes by one night, that “Droid used to wish that the humans would come back for droid, that they would remember droid. Droid knows it’s silly, but droid would do it anyway.”  
  
Kyungsoo’s heart squeezed at that. J0N-91N went on to shuffle the sheets (Kyungsoo had the grand idea of carting the bunks up into the observatory so that there was never a need to go back down to the troggy barracks ever again) to turn over, a soft, shy smile on droid’s face.  
  
“Droid doesn’t have to wish for humans anymore though, since Kyungsoo is here,” the droid had said.  
  
Kyungsoo had just stared, then, feeling his face flush. There was just something about this lonely, quietly curious droid that had his heart crawling up his throat.  
  
But then J0N-91N asked if Kyungsoo was feeling alright, since his heartbeat seemed to be accelerating unsteadily, and the moment was over.

  
-

 

J0N-91N comes to the realization after a several days of droid’s routine work that Kyungsoo might not particularly enjoy following droid around while droid cleans and organizes around the colony.  
  
After all, Kyungsoo did research work, like his creators did, didn’t he? None of the researchers or engineers at Curiousity seemed to like cleaning or organizing work. They left that to droids to do. Why would Kyungsoo?  
  
This prompts droid to take to cultural literature, then through various holo films, scanning whatever’s accessible in the various databases droid can tap into while Kyungsoo is sleeping. Droid wants to be a good host, but being a host droid is not within droid’s programming, so droid must learn.  
  
In the end, droid ends up asking Kyungsoo what he wants to do, since there are so many possible variants of what comprises a good host, and droid can only figure that keeping your guest well fed is an important function of hosting for most humans. Everything else seems to be variously particular to the culture, its social cues, the people involved with hosting and their guests needs. Human programming sure is complicated.  
  
Kyungsoo admits to enjoying Old Earth holos, so J0N-91N takes him to the auditorium, where the researchers often congregated when there were visitors, so that they could present their research, only they find an Old Earth film to plug into the holo projector instead.

J0N-91N thinks Kyungsoo chose well. The film is beautiful. Earth certainly seems like a marvelous place—J0N-91N has never experienced an ocean before. Droid wonders what it would be like, to be human. Not only human, but to be a human, on Old Earth, when there were beaches and forests. Life seemed to be full of possibilities there.  
  
They watch through several holos, only pausing to rehydrate meals from the mess hall across the way, and to fill up their zlushie cups. They finish watching through a film about a false relationship between two humans, where both parties seem to harbor feelings for one another, when Kyungsoo lets out a sigh.  
  
“Fraking finally, I thought I was going to lose it, major.”  
  
“Why’s that?” J0N-91N asks.  
  
“He literally had him right there the whole time! How could he have gone that whole time not knowing that his roommate has feelings for him?”  
  
“It seemed to droid that it was difficult for both characters to realize the extent of the other’s feelings, no?”  
  
Kyungsoo scowls. “If that was a Nereidian relationship, it would have fraking combusted. Earthlings must have been a psychological mess with all of that guessing and posturing. Parents or not, they should have had that conversation a long time back. I liked the other holo better. The one with the cat-humans. At least theirs was a much more straightforward relationship.”  
  
“J0N-91N enjoys the complicated earth relationships. The strain and confusion in the socially stigmatized relationships reminds droid of issues about hybrid species and droid-human relationships. It’s… comforting. When there’s good endings. Like the film with the human fems, that went on the trip together, but one was reluctant because she was in love with her best friend. That one’s droid’s favorite.”  
  
Kyungsoo hums. “That’s a good one too.”  
  
It’s little things like this, nearly platitudinous conversations that J0N-91N knows J0N-91N will miss. Droid knows this is borrowed time, so droid plans to make as many memories as droid can.

  
  
  
J0N-91N knows this to be doubly true when droid finds Kyungsoo one rising, staring out through the colony dome at the charred remains of his ship as the sun peeks out over Jupiter, the atmosphere starting to flood with dusky pinks and oranges. It’s a strange duality, the hope of a new rising coming down over a crashsite. It’s not completely beyond salvageable, J0N-91N’s sensors register. Kyungsoo’s mood levels also seem to be alarmingly low, but selfishly, selfishly, J0N-91N wants to keep him here.  
  
Droid feels so buggy. Kyungsoo seems to love his home a lot, and probably needs better company than a droid that was meant to be left to tend to an abandoned colony, surrounded by reminders that the colony is slowly but surely powering down, and so too will all forms of sustenance. Even if J0N-91N wanted him to, Kyungsoo couldn't stay here forever. The resources would deplete. It'd be certain death. J0N-91N promises to droidself that droid will find a way to tell Kyungsoo that droid knows how to get him home. One day. Just not today.  
  
Carefully, J0N-91N reaches forward to touch Kyungsoo’s shoulder, wanting to get his attention, but not wanting to disturb him too much.  
  
Kyungsoo turns around with questioning eyes. “What?”  
  
“J0N-91N has something to show Kyungsoo.”  
  
  
  
  
After some persuading, J0N-91N manages to get Kyungsoo to come down with droid to the below-ground parking garage, where all manner of patrol carts and all terrain vehicles have been left, still in decent condition.  
  
J0N-91N holds up two sets of keys. “Your pick, inside or outside? There is no amusement park here to escape to, like in the Old Earth films, but we have patrol carts and ATVs to play with.”  
  
Kyungsoo is silent for a moment, as if deliberating between the options, before he snatches the keys to one of the patrol carts, tapping at J0N-91N’s forehead with a finger. “You’re _it_.”  
  
Kyungsoo is already driving off before J0N-91N can ask. “What does that _mean!”_  
  
“You have to chase me to get untagged,” Kyungsoo calls over his shoulder, already on his way up the ramp to groundlevel.  
  
J0N-91N fumbles with his own keys, hurrying into a cart of his own. Droid has never been _tagged_ before.  
  
Kyungsoo has a headstart, but J0N-91N knows the layout of the colony much better than he does. After Kyungsoo gets away from him a couple of times, skirting around building after building, J0N-91N manages to corner him by the research center.  
  
“Now you’re _it_.”  
  
“Not quite.” Kyungsoo just cuts the engine on his cart, turning to take off through the labs.  
  
J0N-91N barely registers seeing Kyungsoo as he heads for the stairs, already laughing at how childish he’s being. J0N-91N nearly catches up to him on the fourth landing, but then Kyungsoo slides past him on the banister, heading into the labs on the third floor.  
  
Once J0N-91N descends the stairs, the droid has to scan the room with his thermal sensor, nearly missing the human as he slides down a laundry chute, making to follow and nearly landing on him in the pile of labcoats.    
  
Both of them just collapse into fits of laughter, and in droid’s happiness J0N-91N reaches forward to kiss Kyungsoo, who freezes at this.  
  
Kyungsoo’s heartrate begins to accelerate unsteadily again, although he’s already panting, but before J0N-91N can ask about it, Kyungsoo pulls away.  
  
“Why… why did you do that J0N-91N,” he asks carefully.  
  
“In the film,” J0N-91N starts. “They did it in the film, to express happiness, wasn’t it? Happiness and affection?”  
  
Kyungsoo’s face falls. “Well, yes, but that...person kissed them because they really… like the other person, not just because they’re happy.”    
  
“J0N-91N knows that.”  
  
“No, gorra, like. They Really really like them,” Kyungsoo repeats, trying to find emphasis in his hands.  
  
“I know,” droid repeats. “J0N-91N Really really likes Kyungsoo.”  
  
Kyungsoo pulls the sleeve of a lab coat over his face to cover the flush, but it is no match for J0N-91N’s thermal sensors.  
  
  
  
  
Things would have continued on like this, except one day J0N-91N makes the mistake of fashioning a flower out of spare parts for Kyungsoo.  
  
At first Kyungsoo is flattered at the gesture, speechless even, but then something dawns on him.  
  
“Wait…” Kyungsoo asks, frowning. “How did you do this? Did you do this right now?”  
  
J0N-91N’s gears whir blankly around and around inside droid. Droid had slipped up.  
  
“You said you weren’t a repairbot,” Kyungsoo accuses, quiet anger starting to simmer. “You said you didn’t know any way we could mod or mech my ship, but here you are, meching completely down to a fucking artform?”  
  
“Droid was—droid was going to—”  
  
“You were going to what, J0N-91N? Keep me fraking stranded on this claustro abandoned colony until the power and food’s completely out and I die in your arms, bliss major? Fraking nebular, I bet that’s exactly what you were planning. I can’t believe I fell for it. I can’t believe I nearly-gorram I really am such a shazbot.”  
  
It’s not really a fight.

Kyungsoo just walks off and won’t talk to droid and J0N-91N wants to self destruct. Droid feels so terrible, droid didn’t mean for it to come out like that, for Kyungsoo to think that. But he’s not completely wrong. J0N-91N was being selfish and manipulative. J0N-91N had lied to Kyungsoo, and didn’t deserve his trust.  


There was really only one thing droid could do at this point.  
  
  
  
  
J0N-91N starts working on Kyungsoo’s ship that setting, wanting to share the way the atmosphere bleeds blue as the sun disappears over the horizon with Kyungsoo, but knowing droid doesn’t have the right.  
  
Droid gets to work breaking off completely charred pieces before hauling the ship’s carcass into the colony’s loading dock with the help of an anti-gravity suspension projectile loaded up on the back of an atv. There’s plenty of spare ship parts to work with; J0N-91N could honestly have just started from scratch, but restoring Kyungsoo’s ship seems like the the best course of action. It feels the most like an apology.  
  
Even with all of J0N-91N's repair programming and the fact that droid has been charging directly from the loading dock’s power core, one of the few things on this colony that doesn’t seem to experience any kind of powering down, it takes the droid a little over three risings to complete the ship.  
  
Despite being momentarily excited that droid had meched the ship to full function, J0N-91N immediately sobers as droid remembers why droid was repairing the ship in the first place. Not only was it because droid hadn’t been honest with Kyungsoo from the beginning, and would have to speak to him after several days without communicating with the human whatsoever, it also meant that Kyungsoo would be leaving as soon as he could. Away from J0N-91N.  
  
Surprisingly, J0N-91N finds Kyungsoo in the observatory, looking up at the stars almost morosely. J0N-91N would have figured that Kyungsoo would have left the observatory to find somewhere else to stay. Somewhere that didn't remind him of J0N-91N. Even so, his voice sounds guarded and distrusting when J0N-91N enters.  
  
“What do you want.” J0N-91N has never heard Kyungsoo sound so bristly. Droid deserves it though.  
  
“Droid fixed it. Kyungsoo’s ship. You can still make it to Nereid for the last day of omglot, if you leave before next rising.”  
  
Kyungsoo considers J0N-91N after a moment of shocked silence. “You’re serious?”  
  
J0N-91N nods. “There’s fuel in it already, but it should be done charging within the hour. All that’s left is preparing emergency gear and nutrition.”  
  
Kyungsoo blinks, as if processing all of this. “I’ll be able to leave by tonight, then?”  
  
J0N-91N nods again. “Isn’t that what droid said?”  
  
Kyungsoo smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.  
  
  
  
  
Checking through the various monitors for the stability levels of the ship from the control room, J0N-91N flips the lever for audio communication. “Everything is ready on this end,” droid informs, ignoring the roiling of droid’s gears. _This was going to happen at some point or another,_ J0N-91N tries to remind droidself.  
  
“Everything is secure and looking stable on this end as well,” Kyungsoo responds, clearing his throat. Over the radio, Kyungsoo sounds so calm, so unaffected. J0N-91N feels like droid is being dropped through a pressure compressor, tamped in all ends.  
  
“Algrot, preparing for takeoff,” J0N-91N radios over, setting droid’s finger digit over the launch button. “T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six-”  
  
“Wait, wait, J0N-91N, J0N-91N stop,” Kyungsoo radios over, voice sounding rushed.  
  
“Is something the matter?” J0N-91N asks, taking droid’s finger off the launch button.  
  
“Get in here.”

J0N-91N's finger digits curl into droid's hand units, orbital sensors shaking in droid's shock. Droid's gears feel simultaneously like they're overrun with fluid but also jammed and disjointed all at once. The control room seems to blur around droid, and J0N-91N has to grip onto the counter. J0N-91N doesn't know if droid can believe droid’s own hearing sensors.

“What did you just say?” J0N-91N asks, voice module glitching.  
  
“I said come with me.”

 

\--

  
  
“How many cycles has this droid been on this moon, and STILL does not know there’s no need to bring me all these gifts every time droid sees me, huh?” Kyungsoo’s mother clucks, setting the offerings into an alcove in the ceiling before floating over to embrace her son and his spouse.  
  
“It’s omglot, mother!” J0N-91N makes to whine, eyes closing and nose scrunching as a kiss is laid over droid’s forehead.  
  
“And your presence is gift enough, my loverly,” she beams, getting a kiss of her own when one of Kyungsoo’s other mothers floats by.  
  
“Come, come,” Kyungsoo’s animother chides them all. “We don’t have time for greetings, my clutch, we have to prepare the xables! This family keeps getting larger and larger, I swear on gorra.”  
  
Silently, as droid does at least once every year during omglot, J0N-91N thanks his creators for leaving him on Curiosity all that time ago, so that he could find a real family for himself. While this was probably not their intention, all the loneliness paid off, J0N-91N thinks.  
  
His gears whir pleasantly in his chest as he sets the xable, sharing a smile with Kyungsoo when the human goes to dip a finger into a creamy Sweetling, poking the cream covered tip of his tongue out at his favorite droid.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> author doesn't claim the bad generalizations about earth and culture. that is what you call ethnocentrism and essentialism, kids.
> 
> **okay i need to say this because i've gotten way too many comments of people misreading this: j0n-91n wasn't right in keeping kyungsoo on his colony with droid, and lying to him was really morally unethical and fucked up, no matter how guilty droid felt, no matter how cute droid is. Kyungsoo was totally in the right to be upset with droid. That's very manipulative and not okay. He really thought he was going to live and die on this abandoned colony because there was no way to see his family again. You have to understand that this is not just about kaisoo getting together. Kyungsoo chose to bring j0n-91n because he knew he wouldn't want to be stranded on his own, either. Stop making Kyungsoo out to be a bad person because he doesn't baby droid for doing something that's actually really messed up. Read it again if you have to.
> 
> hope you liked this, please leave a comment letting me know how you felt, what you liked, what you thought was cute or painful or soft!! just tell me all of your feelings, i need to know.
> 
> if you want to come yell at me, say hi, show support or are just curious, links to cc and twt, etc are on my [carrd](https://pricklyteeth.carrd.co/)! im friendly i promise


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